Overcoming Textbook Fatigue

Foreword

I began teaching in 1971. Back in the day, we didn't have state or national standards to guide our planning. But we had textbooks. I recall that during my first month on the job, my principal told me that he was required to observe new teachers at least one time during their first month, and scheduled a date to visit my classroom the following week. He asked me what topic I would be teaching along with the lesson objectives so that he would have a context for the observation. That was easy. I simply pulled out the teacher's edition of the textbook and showed him the topic and objectives for the next chapter. Indeed, I assumed that was my job. After all, the district had invested in textbooks and surely I was expected to use them. (My students and their parents expected that the textbooks would be used as well.) So, textbooks guided my teaching for the year.

I survived my first year and entered my second year, with a bit more experience and confidence. A few teachers on staff eschewed textbooks in a quest for "teachable moments" and relevance—remember, this was the 1970s—and I resonated with their intentions. I also appreciated the structure that textbooks afforded, however, so my teaching evolved to a blended model. In my classroom, I used the books as a base but would sometimes depart on improvisational curricular voyages to explore topics that seemed more interesting to my students and me.

A few years into my career, I was selected to work with a pilot program for gifted and talented students. The program was advertised as being differentiated, which at the time meant that it couldn't follow the regular curriculum. So, my colleagues and I abandoned traditional textbooks and set out to create our own enrichment program to challenge highly able students. Since this was before the days of the Internet, finding high-quality and coherent curricular materials was daunting. We did our best. With the clarity of hindsight, I admit that the units my colleagues and I designed ranged from brilliant and engaging to superficial and pointless. The experience gave me an appreciation for the coherence and intellectual integrity that a well-developed program affords, along with the recognition that a one-size-fits-all curriculum rarely does.

The educational landscape has changed dramatically since 1971. Established national and state standards and high-stakes accountability tests have shaped curricular priorities and influenced instructional practices. The never-ending knowledge explosion combined with instant accessibility of information via computers, tablets, and smart phones has conspired to make print materials immediately dated. Yet textbooks remain a seemingly permanent fixture in many schools.

Following stints as a resource teacher, program administrator, state education staffer, and director of a performance assessment consortium, I co-wrote Understanding by Design (UbD) with Grant Wiggins. In that book, we advocate a three-stage backward design process for planning curriculum. Stage 1 calls for clarity about desired results including established standards, desired understandings, and companion essential questions. Stage 2 specifies the needed and appropriate assessments to determine the extent to which learners have achieved the targeted outcomes. Stage 3 spells out the learning plan to achieve those desired learning results.

We found that this design process really helps to clarify the role of textbooks in teaching. As teachers work through the three stages, it becomes evident that covering the content in a textbook is not the desired result (Stage 1). Moreover, teachers recognize that not all of the assessments found in a textbook align with standards and other desired results (Stage 2). Finally, when developing lesson plans (Stage 3), the textbook is more likely to be viewed as a resource to help achieve targeted goals. Indeed, that is one of the key points of the book you are reading–textbooks are not inherently good or evil. Textbooks are resources and should be used thoughtfully and judiciously.

Overcoming Textbook Fatigue offers many suggestions for making the most of a textbook's strengths, along with guidance as to when and how to depart from it. I especially appreciate the fact that the advice is framed around an understanding of the learning process. The most practical and proven ways to use a textbook are as a means of

preassessing and activating prior knowledge;

engaging learners in meaningful collaboration;

developing relevant and contextual vocabulary learning;

cultivating before-, during-, and after-reading strategies;

encouraging reading and writing to learn;

upgrading assessments; and

effectively differentiating learning.

Equally as valuable as the advice on how to effectively use textbooks are the book's cautionary notes about improper uses of textbooks (page-by-page coverage) and overt abuses (sticking to a rigid pacing guide irrespective of learning results).

As my colleague, Grant Wiggins, and I repeatedly proclaim, the textbook is a resource not the syllabus. This book will enable you to enact that mantra and use textbooks intelligently. Your students will thank you!